About

I am a professional bartender doubled with a perfectionist and as such,

I love to see that the cocktails I make are as consistent as possible.

That is why controlling the ice and its production is so important to me.

A large piece of clear, dense ice is often all that is needed to take a fine cocktail to another level.

For years I have searched to buy a system that would allow me to produce perfect ice at a high volume and when I finally understood that such a thing didn’t exist, I took it upon myself to create it. I have been nursing this idea for over two years now, slowly at the beginning but always approaching it with a very methodical empirical process, until every aspect of the system was resolved and it worked perfectly as a whole.

When I started experimenting I gave myself three objectives:

- The quality of the resulting ice has to be exceptional and uncompromised.

- All of the system’s parts must be highly durable.

- The manipulation of the system must be easy and efficient.

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WHY DO I NEED BIG CLEAR ICE CUBES?

When you make a cocktail you usually want it to be as cold as possible and to reach a very specific dilution ratio. Once those two objectives are met, if you serve it on the rocks, you want the dilution to stop while the precious libation remains as cold as possible, for as long as possible.

A way to achieve that is to:

- Use the maximum amount of ice possible; our ice cubes have a volume of 4 ounces, perfect for a 3 ounces Manhattan in an 8 ounces (standard-sized) Old Fashioned glass.

- Have ice that is as clear as possible; clear ice means dense ice, which has a huge impact on the speed it melts. Dense ice will melt 5 times slower than regular ice.

- Minimize the contact between surface area of the ice and the liquid; one solid piece of ice has way less surface area exposed to the liquid than many small ones.

The micro bubbles in foggy ice accelerate the melting in two ways:

- They multiply the contact surface with the liquid.

- They occupy space so the same volume has less actual ice.

HOW IT WORKS

Water, being a porous material, is filled with oxygen. When it freezes, the water molecules expand, forcing the invisible “bubbles” to aggregate to form a multitude of tiny visible bubbles. In regular freezing this process happens concentrically, trapping the bubbles inside the ice cube. The result is what you see every time you take your ice tray out of the freezer. This, on top of not looking great, is causing your ice to melt faster. Using the directional freezing technique combined with ventilated separating planes, allows the water along with the air bubbles to circulate freely from top to bottom and concentrating the bubbles formation to the lower layer of the ice. The foggy, air filled lower layer is discarded during the unmolding to leave you with 15 ice cubes, perfectly shaped and crystal-clear.

- A simple and fast way of producing consistent premium quality ice in large quantities.

- Less time consuming than chipping ice “à la minute”

HOW IT IS MADE:

- All the parts are made of two types of polyethylene, UHMW (levers) and HDPE (separating planes).

- Both of them FDA and USDA approved and extremely resilient, even at extremely low temperatures.

- The insulation pads are secured around the liner by a heavy-duty nylon sleeve.

- We want the production of all the parts to be made as locally as possible and only with discerning enterprises that share our environmental and human values.

How to assemble

The hand made, engraved, wooden box

Here is a list of the companies we are currently in touch with for the production of our various components:

- Les Petites Mains: Support women in need, mainly immigrants, single mothers, and those receiving social assistance or without income, to break out of social isolation, to learn a trade and to integrate the workforce, in order to live in dignity.

- Robocut studio: Robocut is a truly multidisciplinary studio. Their clients comes from various fields such as design, film and video production, event planning, art, architecture, engineering, multimedia integration and much more.

- Rose Birtch Company: Rose Birtch Company is a Montreal-based custom furniture company specializing in refurbished materials, established in 2012 by Emma Rose Geldart and Andrew Birtch. Both with a strong belief in durable, eco-friendly woodworking practices from conception to completion. Starting with repurposed wood, ending with handmade all natural food safe finishes including paints, stains, oils and waxes. Rose Birtch is a fusion of not only the names and talents of both partners but also the concept of simplicity and durability, form and function, past and present.

- PPD Group: Since 1960, PPD has developed significant expertise in a wide variety of markets, including, transportation, agriculture, industrial equipment, recreational vehicles, as well as mining, consumer goods and medical devices.

- Foam By Mail: Foam Factory has grown from humble beginnings as a family owned and financed business more than 30 years ago to become a global presence in the industry, fabricating and distributing a broad range of foam

WHAT YOU GET

- 1 complete set of separating planes and locks

- 1 liner

- 1 Insulated sleeve

- 1 Beautifully crafted wooden box and lid, (only included in "The Dedicated" reward) made of solid maple, laser engraved with our logo on two sides. It will turn the liner and insulating sleeve into a beautiful cold storage unit for the cubes once they are unmolded, allowing you to keep them nice and crisp next to your work area until they are needed.

Risks and challenges

Risks
Production:
We are in constant contact with our suppliers and have obtained, from each of them a precise and realistic delivery timeframe.
If something was to come up, we have given ourselves enough time to allow us to react and make the necessary adjustments whilst respecting our original delivery deadline.
We secretly expect to deliver our product earlier than the due date!

Personal investment:
We have spent the last few years investing a great amount of time,
energy and money to get this far. As perfectionists & ice enthusiasts we have made sure that every technical detail of the project is accounted for and that our system would meet the highest overall standards of quality.

Team:
Johan and I have known each other for years and this is our first project together, we both have our respective area of expertise.
We are fully committed to the success of our project and are fully aware of the challenging work that is ahead of us.
We both have the know-how when it comes to getting things done.
The design is complete, brand-wise and product-wise all we need is the financial means to get this project moving forward.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 200 or more
About $149

The Bird:
One complete ice making kit including everything you need to make perfect Les Glacons ice! (Separating planes, locks, one liner and one insulating sleeve are all included).
All this mailed to you as soon as it's ready.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 400 or more
About $298

The Dedicated:
One complete ice making kit including everything you need to make perfect Les Glacons ice!
PLUS!
A premium hand crafted maple wood storage & display case. Laser-engraved with our logo and a unique pattern to store the ice cubes once they are unmolded. (The box is designed to be used in conjunction with the lining and the insulating sleeve, all of which are included).